Up to 200 unhappy Kingsteignton residents are expected to demonstrate when the parish council meets on Wednesday evening. Members and supporters of the Kingsteignton Residents Environmental Awareness Group (KREAG) are planning to lobby the council to demand a dialogue about future growth in and around the village. Group chairman Ken Tuckett – who said there could be 20 or 200 people demonstrating – said councillors had failed to talk openly about the Local Development Framework, the new planning strategy which could force development on hundreds of acres of former clay workings. He is also concerned that Devon County Council's recommendation to promote Newton Abbot as a regional centre for development will have implications for Kingsteignton. His group fears that the village will become a regional waste disposal centre and that residents are being kept in the dark. 'KREAG has always maintained the proposed industrialisation of Kingsteignton is to provide waste management facilities to serve the south west with waste imported by rail and Kingsteignton councillors have consistently refused to consult on that development,' said Mr Tuckett. 'This moment in time is crucially important in defining the future of Kingsteignton, Newton Abbot and the surrounding villages. 'Communities need full details of proposals and open democratic consultations if informed decisions are to be made but they are currently being denied both.' Mr Tuckett said the time to act had come after the official body, which regulates councillors' behaviour, The Standards Board for England, had ruled that Kingsteignton councillors were free to comment in principle on development plans. The council's official line has been that until specific planning applications were on the table there was nothing to comment on. A spokesman for Teignbridge Council denied Mr Tuckett's claim that there were no plans to consult the public, and said it was about to adopt its Statement of Community Involvement. The public, he said, would be fully informed and consulted on the district's future. Mr Tuckett said Wednesday's demonstration would be a peaceful, but significant, event. 'The numbers demonstrating their concern and support on September 6 will determine what democratic voice local communities will have in deciding their future,' he said.
